Bosses, an integral part of our work life, are similar to your high school headmaster. Always on a heavy mood and in the verge of scolding people! Putting the humour aside, they are the driving force in a company. The primary administrator of the administration of the office.
By nature, they have to be stern and harsh. However, like two sides of a coin, there are two types of it – good and bad. The former is a leader and takes the team with him, taking care of both his employees and his clients. They understand that if the employees are satisfied, they will perform well and thus, his company will grow.
The second type that is the bad one is the bossy high school monitor type. Rather than leading the pack, this person behaves like the king of the pack and keeps people down. While there are certainly good and bad attributes in both these types, a bad boss is injurious to workplace health.
The bad boss often leads to low office morale of the employees leading to a lesser performance from them.
So here we are highlighting how this effect the work culture.
Why some supervisors bully their subordinates?
Before we venture out to know how bad bosses affect the workplace, let us take a quick look at their psychology – why do they do this and how to tackle them?
It has to be understood that bullying is as harmful as ragging faced in schools and colleges. It leads to a feeling of insecurity in people which ultimately hinders their performance. While a little bit is good for health, excessive and constant bullying can lead to depression.
Now, consider the psyche of the bully, one of the nature of a bad boss. Research often shows such individuals target weak performers to enhance their performance.
In this competitive world, a good performer is often the most bullied person by a supervisor. The reason being unhealthy competition. The supervisor here might view his able subordinate as a potent threat to his position. He might get insecure of it and fears the subordinate will replace him. Another aspect is when the supervisor sees now growth in his career and feels frustrated. Thus, the frustration is taken out on high-performing individuals.
This kind of bosses abuse their subordinate, ridicule them or put them down in front of others. Some even go to the extent of using their subordinate – passing their ideas and work as his. Many times it has been seen that bad bosses are power hungry people who always want to play the powerful dominating personality.
Thus, they choose to behave like badly with their juniors.
Ways of tackling this menace
Effective ways of addressing such problems are to have a healthy competition in office. Both the supervisor and his subordinates should be less stressed out and work with a free comprehensive mind. There should be regular follow-up sessions to gauge the rapport between team leaders and the team. The first of tactics are having a good HR and management team who handles people well, understanding both their professional and personal shortcomings and thus, exploiting their best abilities for the company’s benefit. Lastly, supervisors should be rewarded for their good behaviour and healthy association with their juniors.
How bad bosses affect the work culture?
#1 They bring down the morale of others:
Bad bosses often tend to over-criticize. They aren’t sensitive to other people’s issues. They put down people, ridicule and abuse them. This affects the overall morale of the office and people tend to avoid work. They concentrate less on work and more on gossip. Workers become unpunctual and arrive late in his position or just doesn’t perform that well.
#2 Fosters an unhealthy rivalry:
With their biased attitude, bad supervisors often act like the popular boy found in schools and colleges. They give preferences to people they like or admire, and hence, the others feel left out despite putting in efforts. This results in an unhealthy competition in office and people are always looking to outmanoeuvre each other.
#3 Creates Groupism:
A long-term effect of undue preferences and favouritism is the formations of groups and sections in office. Not those administrative sections but groups of like-minded people you favour. It indulges in the selective company of some while excluding others based on your personal grudge or preferences and not due to an individual’s performance. This often creates a rift amongst people and hamper their co-ordination. Ultimately, resulting in less productive work and finally, it damages a company’s image.
#4 Office Politics: These unhealthy work culture and atmosphere often leads to office politics as one thing always leads to another. Biased behaviour, bullying attitude and groupism creates office politics where people tend to gossip and put down each other rather than working together as a team. An able supervisor and good leader should discourage this practice.
#5 Loss of employees:
Eventually, all this leads to the loss of good employees, that is the loss of workforce. It is often heard that employees change companies because of bad supervisors not because of work pressure or better prospects. It remains the top most criteria for changing jobs for an employee. Needless to say, this leads to loss of talented workers and hence, reduces a company’s performance.
Thus, from all these, it is pretty clear that bad bosses are a liability while good ones are an asset to the company.
Endnote
On a parting note, it is best said that good bosses are leaders while bad bosses are just individuals in a powerful position.
Good supervisors are not made in a day. They can’t be instantly hired. Similar to all professionals, it requires certain skills and attributes. The foremost being understanding of other people’s perceptive and the ability to handle pressure. Another key ingredient of being a good boss is patience and perseverance.
A person with these attributes handles stress and understands people. Thus, they bring out the best in people. They exploit their team abilities to the fullest. Such a person knows both the weakness and strong points of individuals of the team. Hence, they know how to exploit them for maximal benefit. Thus, good bosses aren’t made in a day. They need nurturing.
From the outside, it may seem that the bad bosses are winning, but a closer look tells a different story. It is the good bosses who have the greatest impact. It is like the tortoise and rabbit race. In the end, the tortoise always wins.
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